After council approved the plan for a nearly 800,000 square-foot redevelopment at Stadium Shopping Centre, neighbours who fought it expressed hope it doesn’t turn out as bad as feared.

Ald. Dale Hodges found no support for his bids Tuesday to slash the northwest project’s maximum tower height to six storeys from 14, or otherwise alter it based on University Heights community protests.

Council did, however, reaffirm its assurances any traffic or transit upgrades in the new area plan for the 16th Avenue N.W. plaza will be in place by the time the aging strip mall and parking lot gets its major facelift of apartments, office space, a hotel and more retail, complete with underground parking.

Western Securities, the project developer, has produced no drawings or exact plans for the community to consider, but will begin neighbourhood workshops on the master plan in September, project director Mike Brescia said.

Until that happens, there’s little to quell the concerns about traffic, said Mili Rowse, who has lived in University Heights since 1979.

“Another concern, perhaps, was the hotel, but maybe we can live with it,” Rowse said.

“I don’t know; we just don’t have enough information, really, about how to make a decision without getting emotional about things.”

Tuesday’s 14-1 council vote on the redevelopment plan followed a daylong hearing last week, which drew dozens of protests from homeowners in University Heights, whose houses and apartment complexes boast a mix of academics, students and medical professionals. An unusually high number of residents walk to work at either Foothills Hospital on one side of the neighbourhood, or University of Calgary on the other.

This will be the last time this plan comes before council. The master plan will be sorted out between city planners and Western Securities, with mandatory consultation with neighbours. Brescia said residents shouldn’t be as concerned with the final product.

“A lot of it is going to get addressed as we start showing things,” he said.

The Stadium plaza makeover — which most residents said was long overdue — should take five to 10 years to be completed, Western Securities predicts.

It’s being touted as a “transit-oriented development” like the towers rising at Brentwood LRT, although Stadium plaza is a 15-minute walk from the train station. A “bus rapid transit” route is proposed for 16th Avenue, which borders the project, but the city has no budget or timeline for that yet.

“If the ability exists to move people through an increased investment in transit, then I think this site has a good chance of working,” said Peter Khu, president of the University Heights Community Association.

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